Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	know_v	2,974	5	4.2147	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96595	Vindiciæ regum; or, The grand rebellion that is, a looking-glasse for rebels, whereby they may see, how by ten severall degrees they shall ascend to the height of their designe, and so throughly rebell, and utterly destroy themselves thereby. And, wherin is clearly proued by holy Scripturs, ancient fathers, constant martyrs, and our best modern writers, that it is no wayes lawfull for any private man, or any sort or degree of men, inferior magistrates, peeres of the kingdom, greatest nobility, lo. of the councel, senate, Parliament or Pope, for any cause, compelling to idolatry, exercising cruelty, prastizing [sic] tyranny, or any other pretext, how fair and specious soever it seems to be, to rebell, take armes, and resist the authority of their lawfull king; whom God will protect, and require all the blood that shall be spilt at the hands of the head rebels. And all the maine objections to the contrary are clearly answered. / By Gr. Williams, L. Bishop of Ossory.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2675; Thomason E88_1; ESTC R204121	92,613	114

others his prime Councell should be led by evill advice to set up Idolatry and to play the Tyrant to take a way the goods destroy the lives and bring most of his people to most miserable conditions may neither private men nor the subordinate Magistrates nor the prime Nobility of the people nor any other Court or Assembly of men restraine his fury or remove this mischiefe from Gods inheritance from the Church and Common-wealth this is that Gordian knot which is so hard to be untied But if I might in the Schoole of Divinity have leave to resolve this question Solutie and not to be confuted as Saint Steven was with stony arguments 2 Parts of their obiection I would soone answer that 1. In neither of these cases 2. Neither of these men may doe it and I could make this good by very good authority for Si Magistratus est bonus nutritor est tuus If our Governour be good he is our nursing father and wee should receive our nourishment with thankes and no thankes to us for our obedience to such a one And if our Governour be evill hee is so for our transgression and we should receive our punishment with patience and therefore no resistance but either obey the good willingly or endure the evill patiently But to proceed to breake this Gordian knot in pieces and to answer each part of this objection 1. 1 Part of their obiection answered No to rebell for any cause 1. Not for our compulsion to Idolatry I say that many wicked Kings and cruell Emperours have set up Idolatry and blasphemy against God and yet I doe not find that any of Gods servants did ever rebell against them for you know Jeroboam the sonne of Nebat that made Israel to sinne did set up golden Calves to be worshipped Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon made an Image of gold and commanded all his people to fall downe to worship it And what shall I say of those Idolatrous Kings Achab Manasses Julian and abundance more that most impiously compelled their subjects unto Idolatry and yet you shall not finde that either the faithfull Iewes under Ieroboam nor the Prophet Daniel in Babylon nor Elias the man of God in the time of Achab nor any of all the good Christians that were under Iulian did either themselves or perswade others of the servants of God at any time to rebell against those Idolatrous Kings for they considered how farre the Law of God that prohibiteth Idolatry and instigateth us against the allurers and perswaders of us to Idolatry and blasphemy extendeth and that is If thy brother Deut. 13.6 How far the Law of God extendeth to resist Idolaters the son of thy mother or thy son or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine owne soule shall intice thee to Idolatry and to serve strange gods thine eye shall not spare him neither shalt thou have any pity upon him but for the sonne to rise up against the father the wife against her husband the servant against his Lord the subject against his King here is not a word and therefore by this Law they are not obliged but rather forbidden to doe it for though the sonne is not expresly prohibited to accuse his father nor the wife her husband nor the servant his Lord nor the subject his King Yet because Gods Law is absolute and perfect to which wee must neither adde nor detract nor construe it as we please the Divines conceive those things forbidden which are not expressed especially in penall precepts which are to be restrained and not extended any further then they are set downe Tostatus in Deut. 13. q. 3. as Tostatus doth most truely conclude And what the sonne may not doe against his father nor the wife against her husband nor the servant against his Lord that certainly no man may do against his King which is the father of his Countrey the husband of the Common-wealth and the supreme Lord over all his subjects And therefore Christ himselfe that came to fulfill the Law and knew best how farre it reached living under the Empire of Tiberius the Principality of Herod and the Government of Pilate that were all wicked and idolatrous did notwithstanding submit himselfe in all things which the Law of God forbad him not unto them and though for strength policie and power he might easily have resisted them The obedience of all his Apostles and prime Christians to idolatrous Governours yet did hee not onely performe all the offices of subjection unto these wicked Magistrates and idolatrous Governours but also commanded all his followers to doe the like and so wee see they did for the Christians which were at Hierusalem when James was martyred were more in number and greater in power then were the persecuters of that Apostle and yet for the reverence they bare to the Law of God and the example of their Master Christ interimi se à paucioribus quàm interimere patiebantur they rather suffered themselves to bee killed then they would kill their Persecuters Clement recognit l. 1. f. 9. saith S. Clement And so the other Apostles under Caligula Claudius Nero Domitian that were bloudy Tyrants cruell Persecuters and most wicked Idolaters and those holy Fathers of the Church Liberius Hosius Athanasius Nazianzen Hilary Ambrose Augustine Hierome Chrysostome and the rest Cyprian ad Demetrian Tertull. in Apolog He that would see more plenty of proofe let him reade the Treatise A perswasion to loyalty Where the Author bringeth the Fathers of all ages to confirme this point for a thousand yeares together followed the example of Patience without resistance yea Quamvis nimius copiosus noster sit numerous though their power was great and their number greater then their adversaries yet none of them strugled when he was apprehended saith S. Cyprian and the reason is rendered by Tertullian because among the Christians Occidi licet occidere non licet It was lawfull for them to suffer themselves to be killed but not to kill for our Saviour had pronounced them blessed that would suffer for righteousnesse sake and what more righteous then to suffer death for not being an Idolater to die rather then to deny their God therefore they are not to be blessed which refuse to suffer because that in not suffering but in rising up and rebelling against their Persecuters they are as the Apostle saith convinced of sinne and in sinning they acquire unto themselves damnation Rom. 13. Besides if it were lawfull to maintaine this Doctrine then the Papists that beleeve our Religion to be false and that we perswading men unto it doe seduce them from the true service of God may lawfully rebell against their Prince and justifie all their most trayterous plots and every hereticall Sect that beleeveth we are Idolaters as they doe all which oppose the crosse in Baptisme may without offence fall into rebellion against all those Magistrates that

party can assure themselves of victory It is true that the justest cause hath best reason to be most confident yet it succeeds not alwayes when God for secret causes best known unto himself suffereth many times especially for a time as in the case of the Tribe of Benjamin the Rebels to prevaile against the true Subjects And as the event is doubtfull so it must needs be mournfull what side soever proveth victor for who can expresse the sorrows and sadnesse of those faithfull subjects that shall see the light of their sunne any wayes eclipsed the lampe of Israel and the breath of their nostrils to be darkned or extinguished and also to see the learned Clergy and the grave Fathers of the Church discountenanced and destroyed On the other side it will not be much lesse mournfull to see so many of our illustrious Nobles ancient Gentry and others of the ablest Commonalty brought to ruine and to pay for their folly not onely their dearest lives but also the desolation of their houses and decay of their posterities Quis talia fando temperet à lachrymis When the Kings victory shall be but like that of David after the death of Absolon Bella geri placuit nullos babitura triumphos Luca. l. 1. and the Nobles victory but as the two victories of the Benjamites over their own brethren the Israelites and the best triumph that can succeed on either side shall be but as the espousall of a virgin on the day of her parents funerall or as the laying of the foundation of the second Temple when the shout of joy could not be discerned from the noise of weeping And therefore a learned Preacher of Gods Word saith most truly Mr. Warmstry in Ramo Olivae p. 23. that it is a hard matter to find out a mischief of so destructive a nature that we would exchange it for this civill warre for Tyranny Slavery Penury or any thing almost may be better born with peace and unity then a civill war with the greatest libertie and plenty seeing the comfort of such associates would quickly be swallowed up like Pharaohs fat kine by such a monster feeding with them Had we a Tyrant like Rehoboam that would whip us with Scorpions which the Devill dares not be so impudent as to alledge we have yet better it were to be under one Tyrant then many which we are sure to have in civill broyles when every wicked man becomes a Tyrant when he seeth the reines of government cut in pieces Were we under the yoke of an Egyptian slavery to make bricks without straw yet better it were for us to be in bondage then that fury and violence should be set free and malice suffered to have her will because there is more safety in being shut up from a Tyger then to be let loose before him to be chased by him or were we wasted and oppressed in our states yet the wisest of men tels us that Better is a little with the fear of the Lord Pro. 15.16 17. then great treasure and trouble therewith And therefore seeing civill warre is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an affliction full of calamitie and one of the greatest punishments that God useth to send upon a Nation it is apparent that the welfare of any State calleth upon every subject to be obedient unto his King yea though he were never so vile an Idolater or so cruell a Tyrant for though a King could be proved and should be condemned to be cruell and Tyrannous unjust and impious towards God and men yet hereby that King will not yeeld what hee doth hold from God but though the confederate conspirators should have a thousand times more men and strength then he yet he will call his servants and friends his Kinsmen Allies and other circumjacent Kings and Princes unto his aide and he would hire mercenary Souldiers to revenge the injury offered unto him and to suppresse the Rebels both with fire and sword and if he should happen to have the worse and to loose both his Crowne and Kingdome and his Life and all yet all this would be but a miserable comfort and a lamentable victory to a ruined Common Wealth whose winnings can no wayes countervaile her losses The miseries that follow the disturbance or deposing of any King are unspeakable For wee never read of any King that either was disturbed expelled or killed but there succeeded infinite losses to that Kingdome and therefore Writers say that the death of Caesar was no benefit unto the Romans because it brought upon them farre greater calamities then ever they felt before as you may find in Appian those infinite miseries that succeeded in severall fields and battels which could never end untill the overthrow of Anthony by Augustus Caesar and when Nero perished it fell out with no good successe but the next yeare that followed after his death felt more Oppression and spilt more Bloud then was spilt in all those * His first Quinquennium was good nine yeares wherein he had so Tyrannically reigned So when the Athenians had expelled one Tyrant they brought in Thirty and when the Romans had abandoned their Kings they did not put away the tyrannie but changed the Tyrants for wicked Kings they chose more wicked Consuls which is nothing else but as the Proverbe goeth Antigononum effodere to go out of Gods blessing into the warme Sunne or rather to change a bad Master for a worse And this is contrary to the judgement of that ulcerated wretch in the fable A fable worth the observing who when the traveller saw him full of flies swarming in his sores and pitying his miseries would have swept them off prayed him to let them alone for that these being now well filled would suck the lesse but if these were gone more hungry flies would come which would most miserably suck his blood And so Histories tell us of many other Kings that by Heathens and rebellious subjects were for their injustice cruelty and tyrannie either expelled or murdered but very seldome or never with any publique benefit when the chiefest plotters of any rebellion do most chiefly ayme at their own private revenge or profit Why do many times rebell and why Yea many times those very Parasiticall Lords that have most perswaded the King to do things which he knew not to be illegall and made benefit of those Monopolies and exactions to their own advantage to fill their own purses and then upon either discontent with the King or to content the people and to escape their own due deserved punishment will be the chiefest upbraiders of their King the greatest sticklers of rebellion and the head leaders of all the disloyall Faction What fools then are the people upon the false pretence of publique good to take up armes to destroy themselves when this name of publique good is nothing else but a vain shadow to hide their private ends Or were it granted that it might happen for

take upon you more learning then the chosen Bishops and Clerks of this Realme have this was the judgement of that judicious man and I must tell you that Religion never taught Rebellion neither was it the will of Christ that faith should bee compelled by fighting but perswaded by preaching for the Lord sharply reproveth them that built up Sion with bloud Micah 3.10 and Hierusalem with iniquity and the practice of Christ and his Apostles was to reforme the Church by prayers and preaching and not with fire and sword and they presse obedience unto our Governours yea though they were impious infidels True religion never rebelleth and idolatrous with arguments fetched from Gods ordinance from mans conscience from wrath and vengeance and from the terrible sentence of damnation and this truth is so solid that it hath the cleare testimony of holy Writ the perpetuall practice of all the Primitive Saints and Martyrs and I dare boldly say it the unanimous consent of all the Orthodox Bishops and Catholique Writers both in England and Ireland and in all the World that Christian Religion teacheth us never with any violence to resist or with armes to withstand the authority of our lawfull Kings If you say the Lawes of our Land Whether the Lawes of our Land doe warrant us to rebell and the Constitutions of this our Kingdome doe give us leave to stand upon our liberty and to withstand all tyranny that shall bee offered unto us especially when our estates lives and religion are in danger to bee destroyed To this I say with Laelius Laelius de privileg Eccl. 112. that Nulla lex valeat contra jus divinam mans laws can exact no further obedience then may stand with the observance of the divine precepts and therefore wee must not so prefer them or rely upon them so much as to prejudice the other and for our feare of the losse of estate life or religion I wish it may not be setled upon groundlesse suspitions for I know and all the World may beleeve that our King is a most clement and religious Prince that never did give cause unto any of his subjects to foster such feares and jealousies within his breast and you know what the Psalmist saith of many men They were affraid where no feare was And Iob tels you whom terrours shall make affraid on every side Iob 18.11 12 and shall drive him to his feet that is to runne away as you see the Rebels doe from the Kings Army in every place and in whose Tabernacle shall dwell the King of feare for though the ungodly fleeth when no man pursueth him yet they that trust in God are confident as Lyons without feare they know that the heart of the King is not in his owne hand but in the hand of the Lord Prov. 21.1 as the rivers of waters he turneth it whithersoever it pleaseth him either to save them or destroy them even as it pleaseth God hee ordereth the King how to rule the people Bonav ad secundam dist 35. art 2. q. 1. And therefore in the name of God and for Christ Iesus sake let me perswade you to put away all causles feares and groundlesse jealousies and trust your King if not trust your God and let your will which is so unhappy in it selfe become right and equall by receiving direction from the will of God and remember what Vlpian the great Civilian saith that rebellion and disobedience unto your King is proximum sacrilegio crimen and that it is in Samuels judgement as the sin of witchcraft The remembrance of his oath should be a terrour to the conscience of every rebell whereby men forsake God and cleave unto the Devill and above all remember the oath that many of you have taken to bee true and faithfull unto your King and to reveale whatsoever evils or plots that you shall know or heare to bee contrived against his Person Crowne or Dignity and defend him from them Pro posse tuo to the uttermost of your power So helpe you God Which oath how they that are any wayes assistant in a warre against their King can dispence with I cannot with all my wit and learning understand and therefore returne O Shulamite returne lay downe thine armes submit thy selfe unto thy Soveraigne and know that as the Kings of Israel were mercifull Kings so is the King of England 1 King 20.32 thou shalt find grace in the time of need but delay not this duty lest as Demades saith the Athenians never sate upon treaties of peace but in mourning weeds when by the losse of their nearest friends they had paid too deare for their quarrels so thou be driven to doe the like for except the sinnes of the people require no lesse satisfaction then the ruine of the Kingdome I am confident and am ready to hazard life and fortunes in this confidence that the goodnesse of our King The Authors confidence of the Kings victory the justnesse of his cause and the prayers of all honest and faithfull Ministers for him and our Church will in the end give him the victory over all those his rebellious enemies that with lyes slanders and false imputations have seduced the Kings subjects to strengthen themselves against their Soveraigne and all the World shall see that as Christ so in Sensu modificato this Vicegerent of Christ shall rule in the midst of these his enemies and shall raigne untill hee puts them all under his feet And because we never read of any rebellion not this of Corah here A rebellion that the like was never seen which of above six hundred thousand men had not many more then 250. Rebels nor that of Absolon against David who had all the Priests and Levites and the best Counsellours and a mighty Army with him such as was able to overthrow Absolon and twenty thousand men in the plaine field nor Israel against Rehoboam because they did but revolt from him and not with any hostile Armes invade him nor the Senate of Rome against Caesar though hee was the first that intrenched upon their liberty and intended to exchange their Aristodemocracy into a Monarchy nor any other that I can remember except that Councell which condemned Christ to death that was growne to that height to bee so absolute and so perfect a rebellion in all respects as that a whole Parliament in a manner and the major part of the Plebeians of a whole Kingdome should make a Covenant with Hell it selfe yea and which is most considerable that as I understand the beginning of this rebellion in this Kingdome of Ireland was the Commenalty therein should so fascinate the Nobility as to allure them so long to confirme their Votes till at last they must bee compelled in all thhings to adhere unto their conclusions that they whose power was formerly most absolute without them must now bee subordinate unto them that the strength of the people may defend